Athabaska Colonization Rating
The Athabaska Colonization Rating System was a piece of colonial legislation passed in the Co-Confederate Athabaskan Republic to facilitate the movement of destitutes through the colonial apparatus. The system scores the entire land mass of Athabaska according to a four point scale, with zero indicating areas not eligible for colonization and four indicating the most difficult places to colonize. These ratings would be redistributed biannually by the Department of the Frontier, which could declare a colonial area "closed' and thus bestow Athabaskan social and political services on residents of the colonial area. Colonization Ratings Challenge Action Zero (Closed) Challenge Action Zero lands were on the settled side of the Athabaskan Frontier. This area grew in size every two years until the final enclosure Treaty, Treaty Eight, was signed in 2051. Challenge Action One Challenge Action One lands were effectively already governed as though they were core territory of the Athabaska Republic. Many small communities formed along the edges of the Athabaskan Frontier, settling quickly and effectively because of their regular supply connections. The largest of these communities was the bazaar Settlement of Fairdeal, which remains the largest entrepot for Northern Athabaska. Challenge Action Two Challenge Action Two lands were the highest difficulty settlement destination allowed to colonists without military or survival training. Most differentiated to Challenge Action One lands by their relative inaccessibility and lack of reliable electricity, Challenge Action Two lands were under the full control of the Athabaskan Rangers but were often garrisoned to prevent both illegal colonization from the Province of Pacifica to the west and to protect colonizers from lawlessness. The eastern border between Challenge Action Two and Challenge Action Four remained in deep flux until the Second Battle of Fifth Meridian in 2044, which liberated much of the Peace River for civilian navigation and greatly facilitated settlement expansion. By population the largest settlement in the area was New Bethel, run by Jehovah's Witnesses. New Bethel Before the establishment of New Bethel the Governing Body of the Jehovah's Witnesses had nearly run out of money, a result of continual fines levied on the organization for its complicity in covering instances of child sexual assault and dwindling membership. When the Athabaskan Frontier opened in 2035 the Kingdom Hall of High Level had prepared to effectively dominate the city by flooding the community with Witnesses fearing the End Times. By the time the Governing Body was forced to move to New Bethel they realized that they had a loyal community of blue-collar workers at their disposal and set up essential services in the name of surviving the Tribulations. New Bethel's trades college in particular became a major recruiting ground for the organization. With utter control over the Settlement the Governing Body mandated that all residents must be practising Jehovah's Witnesses. Importantly, enrolment in New Bethel's survival training programs was only possible for Witnesses. Consequently, the population of New Bethel blossomed and the Jehovah's Witnesses survived prosecution in the United States. As pacifists however New Bethel's Witnesses found themselves quickly on the short end of an unequal relationship between themselves and the Vandoos Remnants, who often were unable to construct buildings or maintain infrastructure. A relationship started over an agreement of service for protection grew increasingly domineering, and by 2042 the Vandoos Remnant were threatening to outright occupy the city. They were held in check by the Northern Rangers of Indian Cabins, the so-called "Legendary 23". With the enclosure of the Frontier came the restoration of democratic municipal politics to New Bethel. Disillusioned with the Governing Body and disgusted with yet more allegations of sexual abuse by Church Elders, the citizens of New Bethel voted the Governing Body out of office and immediately legalized alcohol consumption. The Middle Finger, a bar constructed over the remains of the foreclosed home of a forgotten member of the Governing Body remains one of Northern Athabaska's finest drinking holes. Challenge Action Three Areas given the designation Challenge Action Three were often less politically dangerous than areas designated as Challenge Action Four but nevertheless offered challenges associated with distance, climate, and armed settlements apathetic to the Athabaskan Rangers. The technical definition of these areas as per the Colonization Rating Chart was: "Those lands where apathetic movements hold significant potential for militancy; areas taking Athabaskan Rangers riding from one of the four Designated Setoff Points longer than twenty-four hours to reach; areas with some ecological damages that are otherwise safe to inhabit; areas of climactic harshness or somewhat limited agrarian utility." The largest block of Challenge Action Three land was centered around Lake Claire and extended to the west and south along the Peace and Athabaska Rivers. Home to various armed cults, religious movements, and militant revolutionaries, the area that locally came to be known as the Clairsmotte had a reputation for hardiness that has survived the closure of the Frontier. The four major settlements in the Clairsmotte area were Ulyanov, Hotel Piovra (today called Piovra), Welgaia, and the Big Empty. The Northwest corner of the Athabaskan Frontier was also rated at Challenge Action Three because of its remoteness, poor agricultural prospects, and profoundly sparse population. Indeed, the largest open settlement, called Indian Cabins, was home to 23 people in 2037. Though much larger by population with 100 people, Zamapuram was a closed yogic community that admitted newcomers erratically. This Northwestern block would be reduced to Challenge Action Two after the Frontier around New Bethel closed in 2043. Ulyanov Named after Russian Revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin, UIyanov was the home of the Revolutionary Peoples' Committee of Athabaska, a militant communist organization trying to industrialize itself so as to form a revolutionary proletariat. Ulyanov was a favored target for Vandoos Remnant forces scavenging for captives and plunder, causing the group to take up arms before ultimately deciding to accept the presence of Athabaskan Rangers in 2043 with the redistribution of the Colonization Ratings. Hotel Piovra In November 2020 Pat Mustiano, the head of Hamilton's Mustiano crime family purchased a large ranch in the area as a place to convalesce if he were to be shot again. When the Mustianos were muscled out of Hamilton in 2024 the family moved to the ranch, where they started distilling operations. When the Colonization Laws were enacted the family offered to "adopt" the farmers in exchange for control over the land. The Mustianos would ensure that no colonizer could attain a Colonial Deed on the lands of the farmers, and the farmers would work for the family business. These newly-adopted families would take the name "the Arm" and their "protection services" spread over a significant area around Lake Clair. A Mustiano accomplice in Edmonton was able to convince the Athabaskan Republic to designate Piovra as an official Settlement, allowing the Mustianos to use existing banking infrastructure. The name "Hotel Piovra" was actually the result of a clerical error; the Mustiano family representative sent to register the settlement was instructed by the family to state that the family business was a hotel named Hotel Piovra. Instead, he wrote "Hotel Piovra" in the box defining the Settlement's postal address. The Mustianos made an enormous fortune from their liquor business and from the Arm's protection schemes, but the family was a hindrance to the colonization goals of the Athabaskan Republic. Ultimately, the Republic made an agreement with the Mustianos, validating their liquor trade in exchange for removing the family from politics in Hotel Piovra. The Mustianos were officially voted out of political office in 2051, and the town sought to remove the Mafia-affiliated word "Piovra" from the town's name. By then however the city's eponymous connection to the Mafia was too deeply ingrained in the area to be fully changed, and thus the town of Piovra was given its current name. Welgaia Welgaia was started by Sheldon Mdunabe in 2034 within weeks of the opening of the Frontier. Mdunabe organized the Settlement in the months before the Frontier opened and had recruited nearly 500 people to his Settlement plans. Mdunabe knew exactly where he intended to deploy his Settlement, and for several weeks Welgaia was the largest Settlement on the Frontier. Welgaia was pitched to colonizers as a frugal, humbling Settlement where members would have time set aside for contemplation and wonderment towards the natural world. In particular Welgaia became known across the Frontier for offering reasonably accurate weather forecasting. The community continued to prosper until the community grew militant over the activities of the Atomsmasher Horde. The desolation of Alkaline in 2037 so offended Welgaian sensitivities that the moderate Mdunabe was assassinated and replaced by the fiercely militant "Wild" Rose Callaghan. Callaghan began mobilizing residents of Welgaia to seek out existing human infrastructure and disassembling the pieces. Believing that rare earth metals and similar toxins offend "Mother Gaia" their patrols would simply seize digital equipment and store the mass in existing barns. Colonizers started avoiding the area around Welgaia for fear that their things would be confiscated. When the Frontier around them began closing Welgaians began to splinter. More and more chose to abandon militancy with the possibility of arrest by the Athabaskan Rangers growing by the day. Many chose to integrate into other settlements and use their recycling skills to start businesses. Approximately 53 chose to commit mass suicide when the Rangers came to close the Frontier. Modern Welgaia is a prosperous town thanks in no small part to the clever urban planning of Sheldon Mdunabe. Big Empty Because of the number of evacuees fleeing the Atomsmasher Horde to the east the western bank of the Athabaska River became a highly trafficked area in the late 2030s. As lands to the west were generally safer people tended to flee far past the banks of the Athabaska. Big Empty emerged as the largest trading post for westbound colonizers. The name is in reference to the fact that the nearest settleable land would be a while away considering the presence of Welgaian patrols and the Mustianos protecting old landowners. Big Empty remains a sleepy provincial town. Indian Cabins The smallest legally recognized Settlement since 2039, Indian Cabins was at the time home to only 23 full-time residents. The Settlement was a product of a group of Northern Rangers of the Northwest Territory who defected and wandered south. Seeing the Vandoos and fearing their cruelty, the Northern Rangers set up a barracks at Indian Cabins and partnered with the Athabaskan Rangers to guarantee some semblance of law and order in the northwest. Indian Cabins is situated on difficult terrain, offering very little food and often plunging below -50C on the coldest days. Indian Cabins was for 18 months the home of the "Legendary 23", a group of augmented and unaugmented humans led by a Google-created Founder who was uploaded with the title Founder 3. The group was summoned by the Founder Carrier Repose to protect New Bethal from the Vandoos Remnant, which Founder 3 foresaw as the precursor to a grim war and the possible defeat of the Athabaskan Rangers. The Legend of the 23 is a cherished narrative throughout the North. Today Indian Cabins serves as the Proving Grounds for Athabaskan Rangers. The so-called 50 Bad Nights, a trial that sees Ranger cadets surviving through miserable conditions and harsh training for 50 nights, is conducted at Indian Cabins. The establishment of Indian Cabins Field Hospital was a crucial turning point in the colonization of the Northwest. Zamapuram The community of Zamapuram formed out of a yoga-based religious compound started by the enigmatic Rajeeshzama before the Bad Years. Initially created as a compound for devotees of yoga, Zamapuram quickly adapted to the difficulties of a life detached from the rest of the country and thus became a popular destination for unprepared settlers. The yoga-commune set a strict limit of 100 occupants, though the eponymous settlement that completely encircles Zamapuram grew out of the settlers who survived the perilous trek and sought eventual entry to the yoga-commune. Zamapuram remains a closed yoga-based community with precisely 100 occupants. The encircling settlement of Zamapuram currently houses approximately 9,000 devotees of Rajeeshzama, though only some of these people are actively seeking to enter Zamapuram's yoga-commune. Challenge Action Four The most difficult and dangerous areas of the Athabaskan Frontier to colonize were given the designation Challenge Action Four. The technical definition of these areas as per the Colonization Rating Chart was: "Those lands where hostile movements hold a near-monopoly on violence or where no monopoly on violence exists; areas unreachable or nearly unreachable by Athabaskan Rangers; areas too ecologically damaged to safely inhabit; areas of extreme climactic harshness or limited agrarian utility." In practice the areas given this label were under the influence of one (or both) of the most dangerous populations in the Athabaskan Frontier: the Atomsmashers, an apolocalyptic cult seeking to restore the Internet to pre-Spoofing by collecting and disassembling digital equipment, or the xenophobic Vandoos Remnant. Atomsmasher Territory The Atomsmashers, led by General Atomsmasher Martel, were an personal mystery cult based out of Uranium City, Saskatchewan Republic. They sought to restore open, public, pre-Spoofing Internet access to the world in the belief that doing so would immediately usher in a golden age. Atomsmasher Martel used her charisma and her opposition to the xenophobic Vandoos Remnant as recruiting material, finding easy pickings among the soft newcomers to the Frontier. In 2036, claiming to have experienced a vision summoning her to raise an army and to offer Internet-accessing devices at "the blood altar of the Fortress of the Living Fuel", Atomsmasher Martel mobilized her cult into a Horde-style collection of cavalry, decamping most of the population of Uranium City. Seeking a base from which to invade Fort McMurray, the Atomsmashers began to exhibit one of their most dangerous tendencies by causing failures at several oil sands extraction facilities. Largely shut down because of the unprofitability of exploitation, these facilities nevertheless housed ecologically sensitive materials which the Atomsmasher Horde handled carelessly when said facilities fell to their invasions. After causing widespread ecological devastation the Horde set their eyes on the Settlement of Alkaline, a major settlement known for selling and repairing secondhand electronics. In an environment where such materials were scarce, Alkaline had grown into a bazaar community second in size only to Fairdeal. General Atomsmasher Martel personally led the first attacks against Alkaline, but the city had been garrisoned by Royal Canadian Militarized Police, the Athabaskan Rangers, and local militia generated within the settlements of the Frontier. Seeing that her chances of taking the city were nil, General Atomsmasher instead opted to destroy the ecology of the community. She sent an enslaved work crew to dig a canal from the Kearl Oil Sands retention pond at Tar Island as close as possible to Alkaline. This completed, General Atomsmasher ordered the poisoning of the local aquifer by the tailings materials, forcing the combined defenses of the city to retreat. The settlement under the Atomsmasher Horde remained a major market by day but was completely empty by night for fear of contamination. Thus positioned and financed by their conquest, Atomsmasher Martel's troops began raiding Fort McMurray and Cold Lake in 2037. Fort McMurray, the center of Atomsmasher Martel's visions was held with difficulty by the combined garrisons of the Royal Canadian Militarized Police, the Athabaskan Rangers, and what troops could be spared from Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake. The Horde continued to engage in ecological warfare until they were finally routed from Fort McMurray in 2042. Even after this victory the Atomsmasher Horde roamed freely in the lands east of the Athabaska River, riding dangerously through a ruined hellscape of polluted soils and rusting machines until 2045, when Atomsmasher Martel was forced into hiding following the capture of Alkaline by Athabaskan Rangers. Vandoos Remnant The Vandoos Remnant, organized as per usual for their organizations around a conquered settlement renamed Valcartier are a collection of xenophobic, white nationalist organizations ostensibly organized to overthrow the Integralist Government of Quebec. The Vandoos Remnant became more associated with white supremacy as they moved west following their defeat at the Battles of Valcartier and Rouyn-Noranda; as the westernmost unit of the Vandoos the Athabaskan Vandoos Remnant thus represents the most overtly racist, xenophobic form of the Vandoos Remnant. The original "Vandoos", properly styled Royal 22ᵉ Régime were an elite, highly decorated Canadian military regiment stationed in Valcartier, Quebec. Originally seen as heroes for their stand against Integralist attack and their commitment to Confederate Canada (OTL Canada), the Royal 22ᵉ Régime was struck from Canadian military records in disgrace after they began using chemical weapons and executed 17 Integralist prisoners, including four teenage girls. Despite these tactics the Vandoos were pushed out of Valcartier and forced to march west. As they marched they grew in numbers as disaffected Integralists defected to the Vandoos. The Vandoos also assaulted prisons, freeing captives on the condition that they serve the Vandoos. By the time they reached Rouyn-Noranda they were the single largest standing army in Eastern Canada. However, the size of the Vandoos would serve to fatally split them. The Vandoos had long had a history of latent racism and far-right political ideology. Among their numbers were an ever-greater number of white supremacists and fascist sympathizers who cared far less about reclaiming Quebec than they did the creation of a white ethnostate. The Vandoos also relied heavily on advanced technology for their military edge over the Integralists, and equipment had become scarcer as unskilled prisoners and defectors damaged it. These combined issues would result in catastrophe for the Vandoos at the Battle of Rouyn-Noranda, and the Vandoos were forced to retreat into what was then Ontario across the Ottawa River. Recruiting now from English-speaking populations, the Vandoos formally split into two factions. The "Pur Laine" represented the francophone faction, for whom the defence of Quebec and Confederate Canada was paramount. These Vandoos would regain their standing with the Canadian Armed Forces by defending and holding Shield Province against Integralists and Integralist sympathizers and later by their actions during the Northern Campaign against Integralist Quebec. The other faction became known as the "survivalists", whose motivations stemmed from a desire for a white ethnostate. These continued marching west, growing their numbers by invading prisons and appealing to people with far-right sympathies. Parts of the Vandoos Remnant as led by augmented human Max Abrams and a Founder styled as Founder 1488 would splinter off across the country until the movement came to Athabaska and found no more prisons to recruit from. Thus the Vandoos Remnant, acting in accordance with their usual playbook when splintering from the march by establishing a new headquarters named Valcartier seized upon the community of Fort Smith in 2035. It was after the conquest and renaming of Fort Smith that "General" Max Abrams styled himself Maxtus Bourbon X and set up his European Survivalist Headquarters as the purest example of the movement's racist ideology. It was also at this early juncture that the relationship between the Vandoos Remnant and the Jehovah's Witnesses of New Bethel was forged. Although the violent militarism of the Vandoos ensured that they would never become baptized into the Kingdom Hall Maxtus Bourbon X declared New Bethel to be "protected by the white race". Thus formed the pillar of their working relationship: the Jehovah's Witnesses would build for the Vandoos Remnant, and the Vandoos would protect New Bethel from any who would raid that utterly pacifistic settlement. Maxtus Bourbon X ran a highly disciplined, brutal regime out of Valcartier. He maintained the high standard of training that had been a hallmark of the Vandoos but added substantially to the group's survival skills. Vandoos Remnants quickly seized the communities of Fifth Meridian and Fort Chipewyan, relying more aggressively on the Jehovah's Witnesses to reconstruct the conquered settlements. The Vandoos kept their numbers up by kidnapping colonizers, leading directly to the appeal of the Atomsmashers as an alternative. However they could never fully staff their operations and a lack of officers soon led to a decline in training quality. Finally defeated at Valcourt by the Legendary 23 in concert with Athabaskan Rangers and New Bethal Irregulars who had broken with the Governing Body, Maxtus Bourbon X committed suicide on 20 April 2043. The territory that was held by the Vandoos Remnant would be the last part of the Athabaskan Frontier to remain open and its closure on 1 January 2051 signified the end of colonization.